Volume 7 | Issue 0 | Article ID 3463 | Mar 16, 2009 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Focus

Hiroshima and Nagasaki at 65 – A Reflection 広島・長崎六十五 周年−−一考察

Satoko Oka Norimatsu

Hiroshima and Nagasaki at 65 – A year were added to the Hiroshima Cenotaph, Reflection making the total number of deaths of Hiroshima’s hibakusha 269,446.3 In Nagasaki Satoko Norimatsu on August 9, 3,114 names were added to make a total of 152,276. Adding the death tolls from both cities, the total of Hiroshima/Nagasaki deaths as of August, 2010 was 421,722. The total number of hibakusha, including the living and dead, is at least 649,287, and keeping in mind those unaccounted for, it is probably more. Simply put, approximately, one third of hibakusha survive, speaking and living on behalf of all.

No matter how many years go by, the number of people who were in or under the fiery clouds from the explosion of the two atomic-bombs, the first to be used against people, will always be the same, whether alive or dead. It includes “There is no one who can tell what it was like those who perished instantly at and near the at the hypocentre when the bomb dropped.” hypocentres, as Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshi described above,4 without ever being able to - Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshi1 speak or even comprehend their own experience. It is for those dead and living 65 years – lives and deaths people that we younger generations are acting and speaking on behalf of, and from whom we On countless occasions this year, sixty-five learn. And having fewer, or even none, of those years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki surviving people will in no way diminish the bombings, I have heard and read thatsignificance of our actions, our shared hibakusha (atomic-bomb survivors) are dying memories, and our knowledge, to be inherited away, and that we need to eliminate nuclear by future generations, so that never again will weapons from the face of the earth, for the nuclear weapons be used, in combat or in future of humanity, to be sure, but also so that experiments. their dying wishes are fulfilled. Indeed, hibakusha are not getting any younger. The In fact, in the minds of the hibakusha, the average age of the 227,565 hibakusha who hold distinction between death and life is not as atomic-bomb health books as of March 2010 is clear as we might think, as Robert J. Lifton 76.73.2 On August 6 this year, the names of carefully showed in the first psychological 5,501 hibakusha who had died during the past study of the hibakusha, “Death in Life.”5 I have

1 7 | 0 | 0 APJ | JF worked, since 2006, as an instructor and participated as a member of a local Article 9 coordinator of “Hiroshima, Nagasaki and group. Talking about “survivor’s guilt,” Ono Beyond,” the annual joint study tour ofReiko, a retired early childhood educator and a American University (Washington D.C.) and Nagasaki hibakusha, said, “I think the feeling is Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto). During that a little different from ‘tsumi’ (Japanese word for program, we, some fifty students and faculty ‘guilt’). It is a sense of ‘ikiteite moshiwake-nai’ members, visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki for (I am sorry to be still living).” I took that as a three days each, including August 6 and 9 “sense of owing,” meaning the survivor does memorials, meeting and hearing from many not feel s/he deserves his or her life, which hibakusha as we travel. One of them, Shimohira should have been possessed by those who died. Sakue, a Nagasaki hibakusha who was ten Just as many Japanese literally apologize when years old at the time of the bombing, tells us of they are actually thankful, many hibakusha are the hardship of surviving as an a-bomb orphan thankful for their lives and are making the best with poverty, injury, radiation-caused diseases, of them for the cause of nuclear abolition and and loneliness. “There were two kinds of peace. courage – courage to die; and courage to live. My sister chose the former; I chose the latter,” Shimohira tells us as she speaks of her younger sister, who, in desperation, lay on a railway track and was killed by a train, eleven years after the bombing.

From right – Ono Reiko, Iwasa Mikiso, Terasawa Shigeru, hibakusha delegates to Vancouver’s Peace Forum 2006,7 with the author near Hidankyo’s office in Tokyo

Shimohira Sakue telling her story near Iwasa Mikiso, a retired law professor and a Nagasaki’s hypocentre to a group of US, Hiroshima hibakusha is one of them. At age 16, Japanese, Canadian, Korean and Chinese he was blown away by the bomb blast in the students backyard of his house. His mother was trapped under the collapsed house, and unable to help her, Iwasa had to run, as fire quickly devoured Every summer since 2006, four hibakusha and I the house. During the Peace Forum I produced have a “reunion” in Tokyo after the visit to “Chichi to kuraseba (The Face of Jizo)”, the late Hiroshima/Nagasaki. The four were delegates Inoue Hisashi’s play in which a dead father’s of Hidankyo,6 the national organization of spirit appears in front of his daughter who nuclear-bomb victims, to the World Peace survived the bomb. The daughter was Forum held in Vancouver in 2006, in which I struggling with the pain and guilt, after

2 7 | 0 | 0 APJ | JF surviving in a situation similar to Iwasa’s – UN Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review having to flee, leaving her father behind. Conference, held from May 3 to 28, 2010. It was unprecedented that so large a number of To the daughter who resists finding happiness hibakusha gathered at one place outside of in life, the father “ghost” yells, Japan. They were getting old, and many came expecting it would be their last chance to participate in an overseas conference calling on Takezo (Father): Listen to me, will state leaders to abolish nuclear weapons. With ya! When you were next to me knowledge of the utter failure of the previous then, didn’t you just cry and tell conference of 2005, in which no final me how inhuman it all was, how agreement was reached, the hibakusha were horrible, that we had to part like particularly hopeful this year. Since April 5, that? Remember? Didn’t I say to 2009, when US President Obama delivered the you, “A parting like this should “Prague Speech,”9 in which he expressed a will never happen again, till the end of to act for a “world without nuclear weapons,” time. It’s not human.” Were you the expectation has grown that the US, with a able to hear my last words, giant share of the world’s nuclear arsenals Mitsue? “Live. Live my life for me (with Russia over 95% of the world total),10 too!” So, you see, you will go on finally had a leader who was serious about living because of me. nuclear disarmament. Obama became very Mitsue (Daughter): Because of popular in Japan, and many campaigns sought you? to invite him to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima’s Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi started a Takezo: Yes. Go on living so that campaign called “Obamajority,” with the intent the world will remember that tens of making Obama’s “nuclear-free” message the of thousands of people have had to majority view. “Obamajority” T-shirts sold fast say goodbye like that and it’s at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum’s 11 inhuman...”8 bookstore. With this speech, Obama became the first president of the United States to express the “moral responsibility” of the US to Having Iwasa in the audience made me feel act, as “the only nuclear power to have used special, but also nervous at the same time. Who nuclear weapons.” While was hardly a direct am I doing this, as if I knew anything? After the expression of responsibility towards the atomic play, Iwasa told me, with his usual subtle, bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was a gentle smile, “I wish my mother would appear courageous step forward for a US leader to put in front of me, like in the play.” I could only the notion of “responsibility” and the act of respond with silence. The dead are speechless. using nuclear weapons in a single sentence. Since then, I have always been conscious of the dead, and their unborn children and grandchildren. In that way, they are not silent. They are in the background of everything I do, and I listen to them.

Hope of Prague 2009, to New York 2010

Iwasa was one of about one hundred hibakusha who came to New York to urge action by the

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A-bomb Exhibit at UN Visitor Centre

Obama speaking in Prague, April 5, 2009

This May, the hundred hibakusha were active in New York. For the first time,Hidankyo hosted a large A-bomb panel exhibit in the U.N. Headquarters’ Visitor Centre’s lobby, which ran Hidankyo Executives at UN Swedish from May 3 to the end of June. Hibakusha took Mission12 turns attending the exhibit, answering questions and telling their stories to visitors. The hibakusha visited forty schools, telling Hidankyo representatives met with Secretary their stories to local students. Another group of General Ban Ki-moon, and wrote to all 192 over one hundred people served as local member states of the U.N. requesting to visit volunteers, most of them bilingual Japanese- their U.N. mission’s offices. They were able to Americans, who contributed as translators and visit seven of them – Brazil, Malaysia, Japan, helpers for hibakusha during school visits, New Zealand, Sweden, and surprisingly, two demonstrations, and conferences. The nuclear weapon states, Russia and France. In hibakusha, local volunteers, and international fact, France did not respond, but French anti- activists shared a real sense of camaraderie. nuclear activists who were in town for the The highlight of hibakusha activism in New conference brought Hidankyo delegates to York was the rally and demonstration held at their representative’s office, and a meeting Times Square on May 2 by volunteers and took place. sponsors of peace and anti-nuclear

4 7 | 0 | 0 APJ | JF organizations around the world.13 The rally with from place to place. For reports in the English speeches and music went on for almost two language, we must rely on blogs and hours under the strong sunshine.alternative media, but filmmaker Bill Day’s Unfortunately, there was no translationclip14 conveys a good sense of the event. Chuck provided for hibakusha, most of whom did not Overby, a former Korean War B-29 pilot, understand English. Many were tired and retired engineering professor, and founder of dehydrated towards the end of the rally. Some the Article 9 Society in the US, who appears in had multiple medical conditions. Being one of this clip (around 15:00) with an Uncle Sam the volunteers bringing water to and fanning costume and a sign that says, “I Nuked Japan,” the hibakusha, I asked Iwasa Mikiso if he and wrote me afterwards: others were okay. He laughed and said, “We are okay. Hibakusha are patient.” I was and am still terribly angry and appalled at the obscenity of no newspapers coverage of our May 2nd protest march. I still cannot believe it. My anger and frustration at this 800 foreign military based corporate bottom line dominated profligate global warming consumption empire of ours, the USA -- leaves me sadly frightened. No newspaper in America covered our May 2, 2010, 15,000 person, international NPT protest march….I even had our Anti-Nuclear Rally and Walk, from Times Ohio University Reference Square to UN on May 2, the day before the Department do a newspaper NPT Review Conference (Photo search for newspaper reports in from Hidankyo Shimbun, June 6, 2010) May 3rd and 4th newspapers across America…. In America when some celebrity clown like Tiger ALL media from Japan; NO media from US Woods gets his penis lost in a non- wifely vagina -- we read, see, and At 3 p.m., finally everyone got up and started hear about it for months on end, our peace walk. It took about an hour from but when 15,000 people do an NPT Times Square to the park in front of U.N. protest march about something Headquarters. The demonstration was attended really important for all humanity -- by 15,000 people, according to the organizers. our US media is totally silent. What was astonishing was that no US media seemed to be present, while most, if not all, of the major national broadcasters and newspapers from Japan, including those from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were there. It was quite a sight to see a flock of ten to twenty, mostly young (20s, 30s) reporters from Japan chasing hibakusha and Japanese politicians

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Chuck Overby at the New York demonstration Taniguchi Sumiteru speaking to NPT delegates, May 7, 2010. Aged 16 at the - go here to see this clip (Chuck after time of the bombing, he was bed-ridden for 15 15:00 minutes) nearly two years after suffering severe burns on his back. (Photo from Hidankyo Shimbun, June 6, 2010) Of course, media aside, hibakusha had a strong impact in the UN Conference. Taniguchi Sumiteru, a Nagasaki hibakusha, was the sole In the months leading up to the NPT Review hibakusha representative to give a speech at Conference the atmosphere concerning global the NGO Presentations on May 7, along with nuclear disarmament seemed to warm. other prominent international activistsObama’s Prague Speech was followed by his including Jody Williams, Rebecca Johnson, and leadership in the UN Security Council 16 Akiba Tadatoshi. The Japanese government Resolution 1887 in September 2009,19 a new was heavily criticized by hibakusha andNuclear Posture Review,20 a START renewal activists during the month of the NPT, for between Russia and US,21 and the Nuclear sending neither the Prime Minister nor the Security Summit, in April 2010.22 Foreign Minister to New York, and for taking no visible leadership over the NPT process, The NPT Review Conference 2010 is too despite Prime Minister Hatoyama’s pledge to complicated to summarize in a paragraph or do so at the U.N. Security Council Meeting in two,23 but at least a final document was the fall of 2009.17 The only Japan-initiated produced, albeit a compromise.24 It pressed the achievement of the NPT was the May 11 joint five nuclear weapon states to take concrete statement stressing education for non-steps for disarmament, to diminish the role of proliferation and disarmament, signed by 42 nuclear weapons, and report back on progress countries including Russia and Germany.18 in 2014; it proposed a conference in 2012 to establish a Middle East Nuclear-free Zone; called on Israel, Pakistan, and India to join the NPT and put their nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards; it also condemned the DPRK for its nuclear tests of 2006 and 2009, and called for its return to the 6-party talks. “Consideration of negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention” was included for the first time, twice, in the document.

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the conference fall apart (as it did in 2005). I am dissatisfied with the fact that the concrete schedule for nuclear disarmament, which was in the original draft, was removed, and no clear path for abolition was presented. I want all the participating countries to take more concrete actions.27

Ban Ki-moon, from New York to Nagasaki and Hiroshima NPT Review Conference in the General There perhaps has never been a United Nations Assembly Hall (Photo from UN website) Secretary General (UNSG) who is as serious and committed to nuclear disarmament as Ban There was general dissatisfaction among non- Ki-moon. He was the first UNSG to attend the nuclear states that, during the course of the Hiroshima Memorial on August 6th. In my negotiation, nuclear states refused to set a observation, many who attended the ceremony clear timetable for total elimination of nuclear or heard or read his speech thought that it was weapons or to hold a conference forthe most compelling and sincere of all the disarmament in 2014 to set a schedule for speeches. He shared his personal experience in abolition. The idea of convening anthe Korean War as a child, reinforced his international conference to formulate acommitment to nuclear weapons abolition, roadmap for nuclear abolition, which was in the recognized hibakusha’s suffering and earlier draft, was eventually removed.25 Nor contribution to the cause of nuclear was the deadline of 2025 sought by 118 nations disarmament, and suggested some concrete of NAM (Nonaligned Movement states) for steps for disarmament. complete nuclear disarmament included in the final document. The plan for a 2012 Middle East nuclear free-zone conference appeared to be the most concrete agreement in the final document, but the US and Israel dissented immediately. Barack Obama “strongly opposed” Israel, the only nuclear power in the Middle East, being singled out.26 (For a summary of media reports and assessments of NPT 2010, see Link.)

Tanaka Terumi, a Nagasaki hibakusha and Secretary-General of Hidankyo reflected:

This conference is a step forward from the 2000 Review Conference. The participating countries cooperated in order not to make

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Review Conference because of Ban's strong commitment. But he mentioned it neither in his Hiroshima speech, nor in the opening speech of the NPT Review Conference in New York, on April 30.30

Having been at the Riverside Church on May 1 to hear Ban's powerful and inspiring speech, I was less excited than others about his address at the August 6 Hiroshima ceremony.31 It may be that he avoided talking directly about the Convention idea at the main UN conference because of pressure from nuclear weapon states, but it is not clear why he would avoid it in his speech in Hiroshima, the city which many regard as the international capital for nuclear abolition movements.

This summer, Ban visited Nagasaki first, on August 5, then Hiroshima on August 6. His being a Korean national added another layer of significance to the visit. 2010 marks the 100th year of Japan’s annexation of Korea, which was the beginning of 35 years of colonization and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at oppression by Japan. An estimated 50,000 Hiroshima Memorial, August 6, 2010 Koreans were affected by the a-bomb in (Photo by Wu Zhaowei) Hiroshima and 20,000 in Nagasaki; of those, 30,000 were killed in Hiroshima and 10,000 in There was something, however, that I was Nagasaki.32 Ban visited the Korean victims’ expecting to hear in Ban's speech and did not-- memorials in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. the idea of a Nuclear Weapons Convention (Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Testing, Production, Stockpiling, Transfer, Use and Threat of Use of Nuclear Weapons and on their Elimination). Such a goal is supported by Ban, as well as by atomic-bomb survivors' organizations like Nihon Hidankyo, Mayors for Peace, and many other NGOs around the world. It was also mentioned, if rather subtly, in his "five-point plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons."28 Ban said, "I especially welcome your support for the idea of concluding a Nuclear Weapons Convention," at the NGO Conference at Riverside Church, on May 1.29 The idea of such a convention was included in the final document of the 2010 NPT

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Ban Ki-moon dedicating flowers to Korean victims of Hiroshima A-Bomb, August 6, 2010 (Photo From One Korea Daily News)

In Nagasaki, there was controversy, though probably less known than there should have been. In his message to the Korean hibakusha of Nagasaki, Ban stated that the number of Korean deaths was 2,000, a number provided by Nagasaki City. Takazane Yasunori, Director of the Oka Masaharu Memorial Peace Museum and Chair of the Nagasaki Association for Protecting Human Rights of Korean Residents in Japan, immediately issued a counter- statement, pointing out that the Association’s thorough research shows that the number of victims is about 10,000. He also urged Ban to call for abolition of invasive wars, not just of nuclear weapons, based on the fact that the Korean victims “were victims of Japan’s invasion and colonization of Korea,” not just of a nuclear weapon. Takazane believed that Mr. Ban’s act of “paying tribute and dedicating flowers to the monument implicitly had that Ban Ki-moon visiting the Nagasaki Korean 33 meaning.” Memorial on August 5 (photo from the blog of Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace Museum)

Korean Memorial in Nagasaki

Every year on the early morning of August 9, a memorial gathering for Korean victims is held in front of the monument, located near the edge of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park. Our Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Tour group always visits this memorial at 7 a.m., before proceeding to the Shiroyama Elementary School memorial and Nagasaki City's main ceremony. The monument was built in 1979 with donations collected by the Nagasaki Association for Protecting Human Rights of Korean Residents in Japan. This year, attending the ceremony for the fourth time, I had the impression that the crowd was particularly large, perhaps around 400 people,

9 7 | 0 | 0 APJ | JF compared to 200 or so in previous years. This could be related to the 100th anniversary of annexation, and Ban’s visit to Nagasaki.

Memorial gathering for Korean victims of Nagasaki atomic bombing, August 9, 2010

Takazane Yasunori, in his keynote speech, stressed the illegality and unjustifiability of the "Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty" of 1910. He pointed out there is crucial lack of consciousness in Japan about its responsibility for the division of Korea, and condemned the Takazane Yasunori, Director of the Oka Japanese government for continuing to Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace implement policies that reinforce division and Museum, which focuses on Korean and hostility in the Korean Peninsula. He also Chinese victims of Japan’s aggressive wars, criticized the Japanese government's continued delivers keynote speech at the Korean alienation and discrimination against Korean victims’ memorial, August 9, 2010 residents-in-Japan (Zainichi), particularly the exclusion of Korean schools from the tuition subsidy program for high school students. The Korean memorial in Nagasaki complements Referring to the unresolved issues of military and deepens the mainstream discourse on the sex slavery and forced labour, he called on the experience of atomic bombing, which is government to legally recognize itssymbolized by frequent Japanese reference to responsibility and to provide individualthe nation as “the only country in the world 34 compensation to Korean war victims. that suffered atomic-bombing.” Suh Jung Woo, a Korean hibakusha, told of being forcefully mobilized at age 14 to work at a coal mine in Hashima (also known as Gunkanjima) off the coast of Nagasaki,35 where extreme working conditions led him to think of killing himself many times. He was transferred to Mitsubishi

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Shipbuilding in Nagasaki, where he was exposed to the atomic bomb.36 For him, even worse than forced labour and a-bomb injuries was the harsh discrimination he experienced as a Korean, including that by Japanese a-bomb patients at the hospital. Surviving decades of diseases, poverty, and discrimination, he died in 2001, leaving the words, “The atomic bomb burned away everything, but it could not burn away discrimination.”37

Non-Japanese victims of the bombs, of whom 80 per cent are said to be Korean, were long denied access to the government relief measures provided to Japanese victims. After decades of protest by Korean and other overseas victims and their supporters, the situation has now changed, and overseas hibakusha are no longer required to come to Japan to apply for benefits. There is, however, one group that is completely excluded from benefits: hibakusha in the DPRK (North Korea). One of Takazane’s demands for the Japanese government is to “pave the way for the Atomic Bomb Victims’ Relief Law to be applied to the victims living in the DPRK.” A study completed “Hiroshima, Pyongyang” poster at the end of 2007 confirmed that 1,911 hibakusha had been living in the DPRK, but Japan – a nuclear-abolitionist country already by that time 1,529 had died, and only firmly committed to nuclear deterrence 382 survived.38 Three years later, the number of survivors must have further declined. Besides Ban Ki-moon’s attendance, what Doctors of Hiroshima Prefectural Medical distinguished the 65th anniversary Hiroshima Association have been sending delegates to ceremony was the presence of representatives learn about the conditions of hibakusha in the from three nuclear-weapon states: the US, DPRK. Many political obstacles have thwarted France, and Britain. For the first time since I or slowed efforts to find and treat hibakusha started attending the ceremony in 2006, the there, from the lack of diplomatic relations program came with a list of about seventy between Japan and DPRK to the abduction participating countries. My understanding is issue to the recent sinking of a South Korean that the organizers wanted to acknowledge the 39 warship. The 2010 film “Hiroshima,presence of US Ambassador John Roos, since Pyongyang,” directed by Japanese filmmaker he was not to deliver a speech at the ceremony. Ito Takashi, sheds light on this issue. It features Roos issued a faxed statement that said, “for Hiroshima survivor Lee Kye-son, living in the sake of future generations, we must Pyongyang, and her long-separated mother in continue to work together to realize a world Japan, unable to meet because of Japan’s ban without nuclear weapons.”41 US Secretary of on exchanges with the DPRK.40 State Hillary Clinton also made a remark at the

11 7 | 0 | 0 APJ | JF press conference on August 5, “With respect to peace constitution and the three non-nuclear Hiroshima and the anniversary of the atomic principles, but right after the ceremony, he bomb, this President, President Obama, is very held a press conference and said, “Deterrence committed to working toward a world without by nuclear weapons is still important for our nuclear weapons...And I think that the Obama country.” Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya also Administration and President Obama himself held a press conference on returning to Tokyo believed that it would be appropriate for us to from Hiroshima. He stated, “It is extremely recognize this anniversary and so hasdifficult to secure safety of Japanese people 42 proceeded to do so.” It was rare, and probably without the nuclear umbrella of the United unprecedented, for a US Secretary of State to States. My view is different from that of Mayor specifically comment on Hiroshima on the Akiba.” Hibakusha were angry, as were citizens anniversary day.43 The world media paid special of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and beyond who look to attention to the fact that the US attended for the Japanese government to take the lead in the first time – with CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, nuclear weapons abolition.46 The fact remains, Korea’s Yonhap News, China Central Television, and Russia’s ITAR-TASS, allhowever, that Japan’s anti-nuclear posture reporting this.44 rests firmly on reliance on the US nuclear umbrella. In the new “National Defense Program Outline” issued on December 17, the Japanese government reinforced this stance by stating it “will continue to maintain and improve credibility of U.S. extended deterrence, with nuclear deterrent as a vital element, through close cooperation with the U.S.”47

Prague’s hope betrayed?

Shock waves swept through Hiroshima and Nagasaki when it was learned on October 12 that just one month earlier, on September 15, 2010 the US had conducted a subcritical nuclear test at the Department of Energy’s test Doves released at Hiroshima Memorial site in Nevada. It was the 24th US test since Ceremony (photo by Wu Zhaowei) 2006, but the first under the Obama administration. While US media were again astonishingly silent on this issue, Japanese With this world attention, Hiroshima Mayor media criticized the test “as a manifestation of Akiba Tadatoshi stepped forward and his Peace Declaration speech clearly called on Japan to US policy oriented toward retaining a strong 48 “abandon the US nuclear umbrella.”45 The word nuclear arsenal for a long time to come.” The used in the Japanese version, “ridatsu,” means test certainly sent a message of betrayal to “to depart from” or “to get out from,” so the hibakusha and others who had found hope in use of “abandon” in the English version must Obama’s Prague Speech. Hiroshima’s have sent a strong message to Tokyo and hibakusha and their supporters staged a sit-in Washington. At the Hiroshima ceremony, Prime protest in front of the Cenotaph on October Minister Kan Naoto affirmed his support for the 14.49

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during that period for the APEC conference in Yokohama, but on October 28, the US announced that Obama would not visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki at this time.53 Takahashi Akihiro, a Hiroshima Hibakusha and former Director of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum said, “Obama should not visit Hiroshima unless he expresses regret over conducting the subcritical nuclear test.”54 Takahashi had on four previous occasions sent a letter of invitation to Obama.55

The recent developments of the Obama Administration’s nuclear policies have been Hiroshima’s protest against the first sending mixed messages. The US Senate nuclear test under Obama administration ratified the new START (Strategic Arms (Photo from Hiroshima Peace Media Center) Reduction Treaty) on December 22, and with the Russian parliament also voting in favour of 56 the treaty on December 24, the two nuclear superpowers are now committed to “the most

significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades.” This will restrict both countries Tsuboi Sunao, Chair of Hiroshima’s Hidankyo to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear expressed deep disappointment with Obama, warheads, about a 30% cut from the previous saying, "Mr. President, you have betrayed us. I limit set in 2002, and of 800 launchers and suggest you return your Nobel Peace Prize." bombers.57 Hibakusha Tsuboi Sunao, regards it Tsuboi and Nihon Hidankyo sent a letter of positively even though it is far from the protest against the test to the U.S. Embassy in hibakusha goal of nuclear abolition, saying “the Japan, demanding the start of multilateral failure to ratify it would have had a detrimental negotiations for a treaty to eliminate nuclear effect.”58 Obama, however, made a concession weapons.50 Hiroshima Mayor Akiba sent a to opponents against the treaty by committing protest letter, the city’s 232nd letter of the as much as 85 billion dollars for modernization kind,51 to the US, the first since the previous of nuclear weapons and facilities. The loss in test in August 2006, under the Bushthe midterm election will pose a further Administration. So did Nagasaki’s Mayor Taue challenge for Obama to take more steps Tomihisa, and Mayors for Peace, an anti- towards his vision of a world without nuclear nuclear network of over 4,000 mayors around weapons, including ratification of CTBT the world, and many anti-nuclear and peace (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty). NGOs in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and beyond. Should we be pessimistic? Not necessarily so, The US subcritical test was a blow toand it is certainly not a time for us citizens to Hiroshima, host of the “11th World Summit of give up. , one of Japan’s Nobel Peace Laureates,” held from November national newspapers, conducted a survey in 12 to 14. Mikhail Gorbachev and four other early December, asking people in the US Nobel Laureates had encouraged Obama, the whether Obama should visit Hiroshima and Peace Prize recipient of 2009, to attend the Nagasaki. 51% of the respondents answered summit,52 as Obama was going to be in Japan “yes,” while 36% responded “no.”59 This shows

13 7 | 0 | 0 APJ | JF surprisingly strong popular support for the non- nuclear initiative of the president, who argued against “the old solutions of more weapons and again more weapons” and for “work towards a peace that is genuine, lasting and non-nuclear” in a Columbia University newsletter back in 1983.60 We have a responsibility to continue to support and empower the man who bravely put forward his college-day ideal to the whole world as a president, and at the same time to continue what we each can do as a citizen.

65 years, and our work continues

Novelist and Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo, in Shiroyama Elementary School Peace his column for the New York Times for the Ceremony, Nagasaki, August 9 Hiroshima Day 2010, wrote of the Hiroshima ceremony as follows: “Of all the official events Shiroyama Elementary School Peace that have been created during the past 200 Ceremony, Nagasaki, August 9 years of modernization, the peace ceremony has the greatest degree of moralAt the August 9 ceremony, school children 61 seriousness.” There are doubtless other peace present their personal “peace messages,” sing ceremonies throughout the world that carry the school’s peace song, “Ko ra no mitama yo equal “moral seriousness,” but those in(To the Souls of Children)” and then play it on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which I haverecorders. As I listen to the song, I think about attended for the last five years, have embraced these children, and children like them, who me and my whole being in ways unlike any burned and perished on this day in 1945 and in others. I appreciate children’s participation the days and months following. That is the particularly. For me, the climax of the annual moment when all political complexities over the study tour is always attending the memorial road to nuclear abolition vaporize in plain ceremony at Shiroyama Elementary School in stupidity. I also see those children in the old Nagasaki. Over 1,400 of the students and 31 hibakusha whom I work with – Iwasa-san, Ono- teachers of this school, which is located 500 san, Tanaka-san, Taniguchi-san, Shimohira-san, meters from the hypocentre, died in the atomic and many others. They were all children or in bombing. The school has its own peace early youth in 1945, and their small bodies and ceremony and all students attend, though hearts were shattered by a single bomb. August 9 falls in the summer holiday. Peace Shimohira-san, 10 years old and her little meetings are in fact held at Shiroyamasister, 8 years old, went to look for their mother Elementary, not just in August; but on the 9th after they survived the bomb blast in an air raid day of every month, and they have been shelter. In the rubble of their house, they found conducted for almost 60 years since 1951. a charred body. When they touched their mother, the body crumbled into ashes.

Oe concludes his Hiroshima day thought:

As for me, on the day last week

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when I learned about the revival of Illustration by Iwasaki Chihiro, from Inoue the nuclear-umbrella ideology, I Hisashi’s book, Japan’s Constitution for looked at myself sitting alone in my Children65 study in the dead of night . . . . and what I saw was an aged, powerless human being, motionless under the Norimatsu Satoko, a Japan Focus Associate, is weight of this great outrage, just Director of the Peace Philosophy Centre, a feeling the peculiarly concentrated peace-education centre in Vancouver, Canada, tension, as if doing so (while doing and Director of Vancouver Save Article 9. She engages youth and community members in nothing) were an art form in itself. learning about Article 9,historical And for that old Japanese man, reconciliation in Asia, Hiroshima/Nagasaki and perhaps sitting there alone in nuclear disarmament, and issues surrounding silent protest will be his own “late U.S. military bases in Okinawa. A ten-minute work.”64 video of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki study tour of American University and Ritsumeikan For myself, as powerless as or perhaps even University, for which she works as an more powerless than Oe, what I will do is to instructor and coordinator, can be viewed at keep learning, keep walking, and keep acting, this link. Norimatsu and her colleagues on this so no child ever has to pick up the charred peace study tour co-produced “Hiroshima, body of her mother again. Nagasaki e no genbaku toka saiko – nichibei no shiten 『広島長崎への原爆投下再考―日米の視 点』(Rethinking the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Japan and U.S. perspectives),” co-authored by Kimura Akira and Peter Kuznick, translated by Satoko Norimatsu, columns contributed by Fujioka Atsushi and Satoko Norimatsu (2010, Horitsu Bunkasha).

Recommended citation: Satoko Norimatsu, Hiroshima and Nagasaki at 65 – A Reflection, The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol 8, Issue 52 No 3, December 27, 2010.

Notes

1 Maruki Iri’s illustration in Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshi’s “Pikadon,” Potsudamu shoten, 1950, in Oe Kenzaburo, “Hiroshima Noto,” Iwanami Shoten, 1965, Tokyo.

2 Masuda Sakiko, “Hibakusha no oi susumu zenkoku heikin nenrei 76 sai ni,”Chugoku Shimbun, 31 July 2010.

3 “Kaku no kasa kara ridatsu o,”Chugoku Shimbun (gogai: extended edition), 6 August

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2010. (Nagasaki)

4 Maruki Iri (1901-1995) and Maruki Toshi 13 International Conference for a Nuclear-Free, (1912 – 2000)’s wide-ranging art works on Peaceful, Just, and Sustainable World, New Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Okinawa, Nanjing, and York City, 30 April and 1 May, 2010. Link. Auschwitz are shown at Maruki Gallery, Saitama. Link. 14 Bill Day’s video of NPT March, 2 May 2010. Link. 5 Robert J Lifton, “Death in Life,” Random House, 1967, New York. 15 Ibid. Link,

6 Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- 16 NPT Review Conference NGO Presentations, and H-bomb Suffers Organizations). 7 May 2010. Link.

7 One of the four hibakusha delegates, Miyake 17 Statement by Prime Minister Yukio Nobuo, who is not in this photo, told his story Hatoyama, at the UN Security Council Summit before the public reading of the play “Chichi to on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Nuclear kuraseba (The Face of Jizo)” in June 2006, in Disarmament, 24 September 2009.Link . Vancouver. A report can be viewed at Peace Philosophy Centre. Link. 18 Joint Statement on Disarmament and Non- Proliferation Education delivered by Akio Suda, 8 Inoue Hisashi, “Chichi to kuraseba (The Face 11 May 2010. Link. of Jizo),” translated by Roger Pulvers, Komatsuza, 2004. Inoue, a pacifist novelist and 19 UN Security Council Resolution 1887 playwright and one of the founders of the reaffirmed commitment to nuclear Article 9 Association, died on April 9, 2010. disarmament and a shared purpose to create conditions for elimination of nuclear weapons. 9 Remarks by President Barack Obama in The significance of this resolution is more in Prague, April 5, 2009. Link. the fact that it was the US that initiated the 10 Ploughshare Fund, Nuclear Stockpile Report. resolution than its content, which lacked Link. concrete plans. Link.

20 11 Akiba’s “Obamajority” campaign, on which In the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, the US the city spent 2,740,000 yen (approx. US pledged no first-use of nuclear weapons against $25,000) of taxpayer’s money, has beennon-nuclear states that abide by Non- criticized by some Hiroshima citizens, saying Proliferation Treaty protocols. It was a step spending Hiroshima citizens’ money to support forward in the sense that the US restricted the another government’s (particularly one that possibility of its first use, but it explicitly did dropped the atomic bomb on the city) policy not rule out the possibility of first-use against could not be justified.Noda Kanako, countries that did not abide by NPT rules, such “Obamajority ni kokin futo, sishutsu chushi as Iran and the DPRK. Link. uttae jumin kansa seikyu,” Chugoku Shimbun 21 Hiroshima Peace Media Center, 30 July 2010. The new START limits the possession of strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 for both 12 From left, Kodama Michiko (Hiroshima), countries – 30% lower than the previous Taniguchi Sumiteru (Nagasaki), Tanaka Terumi ceiling. “US and Russian leaders hail nuclear (Nagasaki), Author, Kodama Sueichiarms treaty,” BBC News, 8 April 2010. Link.

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22 The Nuclear Security Summit centered on and Korean, see Norimatsu Satoko’s report at how to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, its Peace Philosophy Centre: Link. technology and its resources, to terrorists. The 35 participating 47 countries agreed to aim to lock For more background on this island, see down all vulnerable nuclear material within Peace Philosophy Centre: Link. four years. Link. 36 “Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace 23 For an overview of NPT 2010 achievements, Museum” Guidebook (translated by Shomi criticism and media reports, see PeaceYoon; updated by Norimatsu Satoko, July Philosophy Centre, 28 May 2010.Link . 2010).

37 24 NPT Review Conference Final Document Narusawa Muneo, “Chosenjin hibakusha ga (VOL.I) Link 1 Link 2. tou ‘100 nen no kagai,’” Shukan Kin’yobi, 27 August 2010. 25 Kanazaki Yumi, “NPT Review Conference 38 Ito Takashi, “Hiroshima, Pyongyang,” closes after unanimous adoption of Final Fubaisha, 2009. Document,” Chugoku Shimbun Hiroshima

Peace Media Center, 31 May 2010. 39 Masuda Sakiko, “Zaicho hibakusha no

26 kenshin keikaku Hiroshima ken ishi kai 9 gatsu “UN talks back conference on nuclear-free haken mezasu,” Chugoku Shimbun Hiroshima Middle East,” BBC News, 29 May 2010. Link. Peace Media Center, 19 April 2010. Link. 27 Chugoku Shimbun, May 29, 2010. 40 The English version of “Hiroshima,

28 Pyongyang” has been shown at film festivals Ban Ki-moon’s Five-Point Plan. Link. around the world. Link. 29 Ban Ki-moon’s speech at the NGO Conference 41 “US Ambassador Roos, UN’s Ban Attends at Riverside Church, New York, 1 May 2010. Attend Hiroshima Event,” Bloomberg Business Link. News, 6 August 2010. Link. 30 The opening speech by Ban Ki-moon of the 42 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, NPT Review Conference in New York, 30 April US State Department, 5 August 2010. Link. 2010. Link. 43 Chugoku Shimbun, 7 August 2010, P. 5. 31 Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 2010 – Secretary General’s Remarks at the Hiroshima Peace 44 Chugoku Shimbun, 7 August 2010, P. 5. Memorial Ceremony. Link. 45 Hiroshima City Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi’s 32 Oka Masaharu and Takazane Yasunori, Peace Declaration Speech, 6 August 2010. “Chosenjin hibakusha towa (Korean hibakusha Link. – Hidden Truths),” Nagasaki Association for Protecting Human Rights of Korean Residents 46 Chugoku Shimbun, 7 August 2010, P. 2. in Japan, 1993, Nagasaki. 47 “Summary of National Defense Program 33 Takazane Yasunori’s counter-statement to Guidelines, FY 2011,” the Ministry of Defense, Ban Ki-moon’s statement. Link. 17 December 2010. Link.

34 For full text of Takazane’s speech in Japanese 48 Kanazaki Yumi, “US Conducts Subcritical

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Nuclear Test,” Chugoku Shimbun Hiroshima treaty,” Financial Times, 24 December 2010. Peace Media Center, 13 October 2010. 57 “Shin kakugunshuku joyaku hakko e (a new 49 Kanazaki Yumi, “A-bomb survivors stage sit- nuclear disarmament treaty to come to effect),” in against US subcritical test,”Chugoku Asahi Shimbun, 24 December 2010, P. 1. Shimbun Hiroshima Peace Media Center, 15 October 2010. 58 Kanazaki Yumi, “Hiroshima responds to U.S. ratification of new START treaty,”Chugoku 50 Ibid. Shimbun Hiroshima Peace Media Center, 24 December 2010. 51 Teraoka Shun, “Bei kakujikken: akiba hiroshima shicho ga kogi bun obama daitoryo 59 “Obama shi no hiroshima nagasaki homon – ni sofu,” , 13 October 2010. beikoku deno sansei 51% (51% Americans

52 support Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and Kanazaki Yumi, “World Summit of Nobel Nagasaki),” Asahi Shimbun, 24 December Peace Laureates secretariat expresses concern 2010, P. 1. over US subcritical nuclear test,”Chugoku 60 Shimbun Hiroshima Peace Media Center, 20 Barack Obama, “Breaking the War October 2010. Mentality,” Sundial, 10 March 1983.

61 53 “Obama not visiting Hiroshima, Nagasaki Oe Kenzaburo, “Hiroshima and the Art of during Japan trip: official,”Mainichi Outrage,” New York Times, 5 August 2010. Shimbun, 29 October 2010 Link. 62 Shiroyama Elementary School. Link. 54 Kanazaki Yumi, “Hiroshima responds to new 63 that Obama will not visit the city,”Chugoku The song performed in 2009 can be viewed Shimbun Peace Media Center, 1 November on YouTube. Link. 2010. 64 Oe Kenzaburo, Ibid. 55 Ibid. 65 Inoue Hisashi, “Kodomotachi ni tsutaeru 56 Isabel Gorst, “Russian parliament backs Start nihonkoku kenpo,” Kodansha, 2006, Tokyo

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